Google doesn't rule out ads in Gemini, says VP Nick Fox on monetizing AI

Ads in AI assistants are no longer a question of "if" but of "when" and "how." Google, whose business model relies on advertising revenue for more than 75% of its income, has officially confirmed that showing ads in Gemini is not ruled out. Nick Fox, the company's senior vice president, gave an interview to Wired and spoke openly for the first time about how artificial intelligence is changing Google's advertising business.

Fox leads Google's "knowledge and information" division, the unit that defines the architecture of Search, AI Overview and Gemini itself. His public remarks are rare, which gives the interview extra weight: the company picked this executive to start the conversation about monetizing AI products.

That is no accident. In 2024, Google earned about $265 billion from advertising, almost all of the revenue of its parent company, Alphabet. The shift to AI search has put a sharp question to the corporation: how to keep that revenue when users increasingly get complete, detailed answers from AI instead of clicking blue links? The traditional model of contextual ads next to search results is starting to break down. When Gemini replies with full text, there is simply no physical space for a standard ad block.

Google began testing ads inside AI Overview in 2024. The feature on the search page produces a summary AI answer. The ad units were placed directly below the answer or within it. Click-through rates turned out lower than for classic ads, but the company did not back off and continues to experiment.

Fox neither promised that ads would appear in Gemini soon nor shut down the topic. He made clear that the team is looking for formats that fit naturally into the AI experience and do not annoy users.

The timing of this conversation is notable. Google is going through one of the most acute periods of transformation in its history: antitrust investigations in the US threaten its dominance in search, and competition from OpenAI and Microsoft is growing. Rivals are so far choosing different monetization models. OpenAI is betting on subscriptions, Perplexity embeds sponsored content, and Microsoft integrates ads into Copilot selectively. Google has the chance to set the industry standard, which is why the market watches its every move so closely.

For the advertising industry, Fox's words are a clear signal: Google does not intend to sacrifice revenue for the "purity" of an AI interface. Whoever first finds the balance between a useful AI answer and unobtrusive advertising will gain a huge competitive advantage. Google clearly intends to be first.